Transcript of 2009 State of the Student Address
Tuesday Evening, November 3, 2009
Adam Hare, CSU President
Thank you all for joining us for the Annual Creighton Students Union Meeting. Tonight we come together to look at the past and evaluate what CSU has accomplished this year, we are here to examine the present and investigate the major issues that effect Creighton students, and of course you join me tonight to prepare for the future with the announcement of our next Representatives, Vice President for Student Affairs, and President. Before we get to the announcement of the next CSU team we will recapitulate the year for Creighton students and for the Creighton Students Union.
In my assessment, the State of the Creighton Student is generally strong. In 2009, Creighton students especially lived the Jesuit mission and made the Creighton identity ring true for our entire Creighton family. Beyond the walls of the year old Harper Center, our classrooms, and the Student Center lurked the challenges of the economy and health in our regional and national communities.
With the downturn in the economy Creighton University was forced to adapt. Our caring University responded with the lowest increase in student tuition in recent history, with a firm commitment to increase financial aid to students, and with a resounding effort to maintain the quality faculty and staff that make a Creighton education so special. But, you, the students, should also be proud of the role you played in making sure that your fellow students could come to Creighton in these hard economic times. Our freshman class, with record numbers soaring, enrolled in Creighton, not only because of increased financial assistance, but also because of the way in which the Creighton community rose to show prospective students and families the value of being a part of the Creighton family.
Every student who got involved in student organizations, service trips, community outreach and tutoring, campus tours, and academic research increased the value of Creighton in the eyes of incoming students. Creighton students became increasingly involved in Open Houses, Summer Preview, and Welcome Week and shared their gifts and talents with the newest members of our student body. Each of you played some part in living out Creighton’s identity.
There was a moment this summer when each of us were called to rely on our mission and the support of each other. Our campus experienced a tragedy which shook the foundation of everything that was comfortable about Creighton. The death of Creighton senior Jon Colby during the summer months was a deeply heartbreaking moment for our campus. A misfortune like this left each of us with few answers. It was truly harrowing to dwell on the idea that something so bad could have happened to the very loving, supportive, and kind Colby family. But through the rain the people of Creighton shone like a ray of sunlight. Students showed support with prayers and a comforting presence to one another. Faculty and staff came to the aid of all of us impacted by the tragedy. In this misfortune we were each reminded of the meaningfulness of the relationships we form here at Creighton University. I hope and pray that this serves as a reminder to each of us to cherish the time we have with friends and mentors on campus. In these relationships we can live as closely to the mission of St. Ignatius de Loyola by helping each other to Find God, to Find Holiness in our Daily Lives. This is the calling of all Creighton students.
Currently, our campus community continues to be touched by the spread of the H1N1 virus. We each, probably, know someone at Creighton that has been laid up by this outbreak of disease. We must remember to be a support system for those in poor health. Similarly, we must also try to hold one another accountable for maintaining a safe and healthy campus. We are blessed with wonderful resources on the Crisis Committee and within Student Health working to keep us in good health. If we want to maintain the health, the prosperity, and the achievements of our fellow students then it will require a community effort as we move into the colder days and the winter months.
This year, the Creighton Students Union has made a resounding effort to be the premier government for the rest of the students. Since we came into office in January, my fellow Executives and I have wanted nothing more than to be a resource for students and to provide students with the best overall experience at Creighton University.
One of the major roles of the Creighton Students Union is to provide programming for our undergraduate students through the CSU Program Board. Vice President for Programming, Monet Schrodermier, and the entire Program Board have worked around the clock to bring us such events as the Same Sex Marriage Debate, the David Cook Spring Fling show, Wild West Homecoming with outstanding student organization participation, Wednesdays After Class, weekend trips to the cinema, the Halloween Getting Blue Bar-Be-Que, and, this weekend, the Fallapalooza Concert with Jack’s Mannequin. Monet’s ability to organize her team was outstanding. Program Board continues to make a resounding commitment to working with other student organizations for better programming and to evaluate the value of our programming for all students. I believe that the traditions of Program Board will only continue to grow stronger after being touched by this dedicated group of leaders.
Within CSU this year we were forced to cope with the potentiality of a down economy. Your Vice President for Finance, Kelly Nash, worked tremendously to equip herself with the knowledge necessary to make the funding process easier for student organizations and to make the use of CSU funds more intentional. Of course, there were times when she wasn’t working with University Administrators to balance the budget, to forecast enrollment numbers, and to trim down policies to best fit the needs of the students. In these moments Kelly, and the rest of the Executives, found time to hold free Picnics for all students in which we put on our aprons and grilled for you. Similarly, we opened our doors in January and had a bake off Open House to welcome students into the CSU offices and give you the chance to know us. Also, we were extremely honored to play a small part in welcoming twenty-one other Jesuits schools to campus for the National Jesuit Student Leadership Conference. This conference gave CSU the chance to pick up new ideas on how to increase our role as a student government on campus. Out of this conference we developed the idea of the Creighton Town Hall Meetings, in which we partnered with Inter Residence Hall Government to allow you to learn about campus topics such as Dining Services, the Tobacco Free University program, and the operations of our two governments. This newly developed Town Hall idea has room for growth, but hopefully it will translate into a more fluid way for the Creighton Students Union to address the needs and concerns of students.
Throughout the year, much work was done to position the Coordinators of CSU for success. One of the first projects that CSU tackled this year was to add the position of Mission Coordinator. This new position is an ideal embodiment of CSU’s commitment to service, to the Jesuit mission of Creighton, and to the betterment of all students. We implemented this position with the intention of making student government more meaningful to our Representatives and to student organizations. This year, the Mission Coordinator, Ken Homan, gave presentations on current Catholic Social Teaching, helped with the sustainability and recycling efforts brought to campus two years ago, and helped CSU return to a formidable relationship with our community partner through weekly tutoring with the students at the Jesuit Middle School and philanthropic contributions to cover the cost of one students’ tuition through the JayWalk five kilometer fun run and walk. I hope that the Mission Coordinator position can continue to leave its mark on our student leaders on campus through a renewal of our commitment to the Jesuit values.
Also, the Diversity Coordinator within CSU has begun the important work of creating a much needed forum for discussion of the diversity that our campus encapsulates. Creighton is a very diverse campus. In it is our best interest to cherish the diversity of cultures that live and work together here at Creighton. To this end, the Diversity Coordinator, Asialee Drews, has begun working with the University on creating and implementing an Inclusion and Diversity Council. This forum for our many multicultural, diversity, Greek life, and leadership groups on campus will hopefully provide a new avenue for communication, cooperation, and commonality of all Bluejays of different colors and cultures.
This year I must congratulate our Representatives on a job well done. Our Executive team was gifted with a group of Representatives who were diligent, hard-working, responsible, forward thinking, and engaging. This year alone we divided the talents of the Representatives into committees dedicated to assessing campus transportation, bookstore pricing and services, student safety both on and off campus, the reality of the campus switch to being tobacco free, environmentally sustainable practices on campus, the increase of social justice curriculum and passion awareness, improved methods of outreach to students, the student relationship to campus alcohol policy, and increased student input in our dinning services on campus. These Representatives clearly took to heart the true meaning of student government. No longer are the CSU meetings the only time commitments of these Representatives, who are meeting independently as committees. Representatives were also making proactive steps to create their own programs within the University. Our safety committee partnered with Creighton to bring you donuts and safety pamphlets on Tuesday morning this fall. Our passion campaign committee has been in the dining halls and on the mall asking you to show your social justice passion to the rest of campus. Our bookstore committee met with the mangers of the bookstore to bring you less expensive school supplies and to bring you a more efficient way to get the best prices on books. Our sustainability committee helped with a campaign to bring energy saving practices to the residence halls last spring. Our transportation committee is currently in the process of bringing you a safer option for weekend entertainment and dining through the addition of a shuttle route to downtown on the weekends. This years’ Representatives have worked harder, smarter, and more productively than any group I have seen in my three years within CSU. But, they were not without the incomparable leadership of Vice President for Student Affairs, Rajeev Anchan. Rajeev pushed these Representatives to new heights by working tirelessly and enthusiastically himself and renewing the expectations of what it means to be a CSU Representative. I hope that our new batch of Representatives can build upon the successes of our current committees and take CSU to a whole new dimension next year.
CSU has made new strides this year in many dimensions. One of the most foundational is our completion of the CSU strategic plan which was begun over a year ago. This document provides a vision for CSU over the next three years. A group of dedicated students met in February to come up with the specific initiatives of the strategic plan which are designed to increase Representative commitment, to build the brand of CSU, and to increase CSU’s outreach to students and fellow student organizations. This strategic plan has helped CSU find its direction over the next few years and I hope it can be both re-evaluated by next year’s executive team and carried to fruition as we look to improve the role of CSU on campus so as to make other’s time here at Creighton more enjoyable.
One of the most recent additions to CSU was the implementation of the Creighton Savings Union plan. This program is an internal project of the CSU Executives to increase our ability to help students. Through the Savings Union students have access to discounts at local, popular restaurants and entertainment such as Blue Sushi, eCreamery, Noodle Zoo, Sam and Louie’s, Asian Mongolian Bar-Be-Que, and Kelly’s Hilltop Lanes. This program was developed in the summer months and stands as a resource for students to save some spending money in these difficult economic times while still being able to explore wonderful Omaha during your time at Creighton. Hopefully, through a renewed effort by next year’s team this program can continue to gain momentum and put more money back into student’s wallets.
Throughout my time as Creighton Students Union President it has been an absolute pleasure to get to know most of you, to carry your trust into meetings with administrators, and to see the campus grown and change into a more mature, more influential position in our community. Thank you for the opportunity to serve you as President. But before I close this address, I want to speak for a moment on the work that still has to be done before our term comes to a close at the end of the semester.
This year, the CSU Executives have conducted a full course investigation into the question: Should CSU Remain as a non-for-profit corporation? This question cannot be answered without a historical look at the CSU Corporation. CSU has been a corporation since the mid 1920s. And since the mid 1970s CSU has been a state-registered non-for-profit corporation. For thirty years this status with the state meant minimal work and effort on the part of the CSU Executives. Now, since about five years ago being a non-for-profit corporation has meant that CSU has to meet more requirements with the state and federal governments, fill out more paperwork, and spend more time on difficult issues that are simply not reasonable for four college students, with no prior experience in corporation practice or laws, to manage. As such, in March the CSU Executives began an investigation to see if CSU should remain a corporation. As a part of the investigation we met with the lawyers that CSU, as its own corporation, has on retainer, to see if dissolution of the corporation was feasible. The lawyers explained that we could readily dissolve the corporation with their help and without a major loss to the student government. Next, we met with the University to see what CSU and Creighton’s relationship would amount to if CSU was no longer a separate legal entity. In fact, dissolving the corporation, the University assured us, will have almost no impact on the autonomy of CSU, the operations of CSU, the finances and budget of CSU, the funding allocations of CSU, the event programming of Program Board, and the recognition of CSU as the premier student government on campus. The last part of the investigation drew us to meet with the past ten CSU Presidents to gain a historical point of view. We asked these past leaders what challenges and benefits they experienced and out of this conversation there was a resounding voice that the corporation status was more of a burden than a blessing. Dissolving the corporation of CSU and maintaining our singular status as your student government is both a prudent and proactive decision.
Now the current CSU Executive team has been working tirelessly and diligently to move forward with the possibility of dissolving CSU’s corporation. But, we will need your help as the students. You can look forward to more published news on this matter, but in the mean time we ask that you set aside Thursday, December 3rd , one month from today, for the possibility of a meeting where you, the student body, will vote on whether or not CSU, your student government, should remain as a corporation or dissolve its corporation status. This is a change that CSU needs and it is a change that brings CSU more in line with the true purpose of being a student government, to work for the students to address your needs. If we are no longer a corporation future generations of CSU leaders will be able to do this more effectively and more efficiently. Please do you part, as a share holder in CSU, to work toward a brighter future for student government at Creighton University.
I want to thank you for your attentiveness during this State of the Student Address. This address was rather lengthy, I know. But, CSU has been very busy this year. Thank you for joining me in this celebration of our accomplishments in 2009 and for gazing forward with me to the future of the Creighton Students Union.